Alfonso Ribeiro says he is starting at "zero" just like every other competitor on Dancing with the Stars.
The 43-year-old Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor may have starred in 1983 Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid and danced in a Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson, but Ribeiro told CBS News the experiences don't give him an unfair advantage in competition.
"I'm constantly battling this whole people thinking I'm a professional dancer, and it's so not the truth," he asserted. "It's like, 'Yeah, I did tap dance.' But I actually learned to tap dance to do The Tap Dance Kid. It wasn't like I was already in class. And then everything else I've done is just based on me looking at it and kind of learning it."
"I'm starting at zero just like everybody else," he declared. "I'm learning the core fundamentals of all these dances just like everybody else... I'm putting in eight hours a day into learning this stuff. And that's the only way for me to get to where I want by the end of the week. So it is tough."
Ribeiro and partner Witney Carson have excelled in competition thus far. The pair scored a huge 36/40 with a jive in week one, a 32/40 with a samba in week two, and a 32/40 with a quickstep in week three.
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.